Introducing our new online store for Stony Brook for Obama goodies! We are running the store through Cafepress.com, which saves us from buying too many shirts. Unfortunately, it doesn’t give us control over the cost of the products available, but we decided not to add on our own profit-making costs. Our goal is to get as many people as possible wearing these shirts on campus and in the surrounding community.

I heard an interesting argument today. There was some general discussion about the ethical implications of the recent slew of aggressive advertising by both candidates. Particular emphasis was placed on an ad run by the Obama campaign that attacked John McCain’s inability to use a computer. Apparently the ad can be interpreted as low, as shameful. My question is why?

Why shouldn’t it give the population pause that a man vying to be their leader can’t by his own admission send an email? The complaint is that the technological ineptitude is due largely in part to McCain’s injuries sustained as a POW. The argument is of course complete bullshit, and is frankly shameful itself as McCain or at least his surrogates are using his status as a POW to shield him from criticism, in much the same way Rudy Giuliani deflected questions by touting September 11th.

And if in the off chance McCain is really so physically impaired that he can’t move his fingers up and down a keypad, he has no business running for high office.

Politics has become an act in precision. With news organizations and citizen reporters watching (and recording) every public appearance, all it takes is a wrong word—macaca, say—to sink a campaign.

And yet the McCain campaign has seemed to drop all notions of caution in the last few days following the announcement of Sarah Palin as McCain’s running mate. Obama is hitting the GOP nominees hard on what can only be described as lies from the mouths of McCain, Palin, and their surrogates.

Sen. Jim Inhofe of Oklahoma spoke to a Republican National Convention crowd last week, and according to a reporter for the Tulsa World who was there, Inhofe began treading in dangerous waters when he questioned Obama’s patriotism just days before the seventh anniversary of Sept. 11th.

“Do you really want to have a guy as commander in chief of this country when you can question whether or not he really loves his country?”

Chances are, if you didn’t see Sarah Palin’s factually-challenged and overly abrasive speech last night at the Republican National Convention, you saw a headline that read something like “Palin Rallies the Base and Energizes the Party.”

Well, the always important fundraising numbers are in, and the money indicates that Palin did in fact rally the party to action. Problem is, she rallied the wrong party.